'Windowless User Interface', and 'Outlook Attachment Enabler'

Dennis Faas's picture

Windowless User Interface

Traditionally, Windows applications are built upon the GDI windowing hierarchy, and thus restricted in several areas. While you can certainly generate a nice application quickly with the built-in control-set and get a standard clean look, you will soon enough stumble upon the limitations of the Windows controls - especially if you want to build something that looks a little more flashy. The native Win32 custom-draw/owner-draw technique is limited, next to no support for transparent windows, rigid control scaling/resizing and the Common Controls are merely remnants of Windows Explorer or Internet Explorer widgets. A windowless user-interface doesn't make use of the native Win32 controls. Instead it custom paints every control and widget on the screen - including labels, buttons, list control, etc. etc. This kind of interface is not new: "Skinning" has been widely accepted for its cool application-look, as seen in Nullsoft's WinAmp and the MS Media Player. But skinning is usually only feasible for small applications hosting a limited number of dialogs. If you're building a large database-driven application, you'll want to have a solid framework to back your dialog design up. Here's a sample.

http://www.viksoe.dk/code/windowless1.htm

Outlook Attachment Enabler

Control what attachments Outlook has deemed to be unsafe and be free to open any attachment you like. You can also add to the default list of blocked attachment types.

http://www.veign.com/download_app.asp?app=109

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